Top 10 challenges facing global pharmaceutical supply chains

"Heroes may win battles, but it is capable supply chains that win wars [against disease]," write Natalie Privett, assistant professor of management and policy at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, and David Gonsalvez, professor of supply chain management at the MIT-Zaragova International Logistics Program, and former global supply chain director with General Motors. Yet, they add, the global health pharmaceutical delivery (GHPD) supply chains are wanting.

The research article, entitled "The top ten global health supply chain issues: Perspectives form the field," has been published in Operations Research for Health Care, an academic journal. It sheds light on the key areas of weakness and what specifically is needed to strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chains.

Privett and Gonsalvez interviewed and surveyed 22 individuals with various roles in supply chains and asked them to identify the "top ten" challenges as they see them.

The areas of concern which were most often cited include: lack of coordination; inventory management; absent demand information; human resource dependency; order management; shortage avoidance; expiration; warehouse management; temperature control; and shipment visibility.

"Lack of coordination in the GHPD supply chain is a root cause issue whose existence aggravates nearly every other issue director or indirectly," according to the article.

The paper draws attention to both the needs and opportunities in GHPD supply chains in an attempt to "drive future actions, policies, and research which can ultimately improve pharmaceutical delivery in developing regions and save lives."